Akumas by the Dozen
by follow you into the night
Summary: Just as the two heroes of Paris begin thinking their days as superheroes are over, Hawkmoth attacks with a vengeance. Not only do LB and Chat have to corral 12 new akumas at once, but it's finally time to confront the masked villain behind them all. With Ladybug injured and Paris in chaos, it's up to Chat to choose some new superheroes until LB is back on her feet. Adrinette Nilya
1. Chapter 1

**Hello Everybody! This is my first try at writing a Miraculous story! As much as I love Chat Noir, I do not possess his amazing gift with puns so bare with me and my lame attempts. This story is in Chat Noirs POV and is aged up so that the main characters are all about 17 or 18. This story will involve the other Miraculous holders, including the ones we haven't met yet. I'm also not interested in torturing everyone with a long awaited reveal so I can assure you that the main focus is not on that. Happy Reading!**

…

Chat gazed out over the city of Paris, his back turned to his Lady. Things had been quiet recently. Either Hawkmoth had taken an unexpected vacation or the villain had finally given up. After three years with no success, it wouldn't surprise him. If Ladybug and Chat Noir were both disheartened from never finding the identity of the masked villain, there was no telling how frustrated Hawkmoth must be.

Chat's cat hears perked up as his Lady sighed sadly from behind him.

"Everything alright, M'Lady?" Chat turned his body to lean back on the rails of the Eiffel Tower.

He smiled as he heard the tinkling laugh from the heroine. "Everything's purrfect, kitty."

A blush spread across Chat's cheeks, contrasting strongly with the black of his mask. It wasn't often that his Lady would pun for his benefit.

He was about to respond when Ladybug took a deep breath. She was fidgeting, her hands twisting around each other. From years of experience, Chat knew he wasn't going to like whatever Ladybug said next. "It's just….I don't know if we should be doing this anymore, Chat."

Chat tilted his head, confused. "M'Lady?"

"It's been over a month since the last akuma sighting. I'm pretty sure that you're the same age as me so you've got a round of exams coming too and college after that. Maybe all of this," Ladybug swiveled her hand around to encompass the two of them, "is finally over." Chat's heart dropped at her implication. She was done; tired. He'd known his Lady hadn't been as thrilled about their powers as he had been but over the years he thought that her attitude had changed. He thought they were having fun.

As the silence stretched on between them, Ladybug turned to fully face him for the first time that evening. The idea of never seeing his Lady again sent a pang through Chat's chest. It had been years since his early days of pining over her. He still flirted occasionally, but he'd long since given up hope of ever gaining her affection. Still, the idea of losing her friendship was almost unbearable. Plus he had to contend with the fact that he'd have to finally abandon even the slightest hope of ever being with her.

"Please…" Chat moved his gaze from Ladybug's feet slowly up to her face; his eyes squeezed shut. He opened them, his Lady's name a breath away from escaping his lips, when he saw the tumult just over her shoulder.

"Ladybug!" He cried out her name. Her eyes widened in shock before she quickly caught sight of his gaze and spun on her heel.

Never before had they ever seen so many akumas at one time. There had to be a dozen, and they weren't all the same like their first akuma, Stoneheart. These were individual akumas, each decked out with their own wacky appearance and all of their attention directed towards Ladybug.

Chat flipped backwards at the same time as his Lady shot out her yo-yo. The two danced away from the oncoming hoard of akuma victims. How had Hawkmoth managed to akumatize so many people without anyone noticing? How had he even managed to make more than one at a time?

Surely this many disappearances in such a short span of time should have made their radar. But this wasn't the time to question where the akumas had come from.

"M'Lady! Any ideas?" Chat struck out at the first of the akumas, a young boy dressed as a racecar driver. The kid dodged Chat's staff and sent a pulse of speed racing his way. Chat jumped out of the way, landing back to back with Ladybug.

"This is certainly new." He turned to see that she was nibbling on her lower lip, a look of sheer concentration on her face as she gazed around at each akuma in turn. "There's just too many of them. We need to find some way to narrow it down to one or two at a time. It may also be time to go see Master Fu again."

"Something tells me we are going to need more than just Rena Rouge." Chat pulled his lady into a side embrace, jolting away from the Eiffel Tower with his staff.

"There's a whole box of them. Master Fu showed me it once. We just need to decide who else we can trust with the safety of a Miraculous." Ladybug yelled over the sound of the wind swishing past their faces. She had moved her head to tuck into his collar and Chat found himself struggling to pay attention to what she was saying when her lips kept brushing against his neck.

"Okay, so we lose these guys in a game of Chat and mouse," Chat winked at his Lady out of habit even though she couldn't see his face, "and go visit Master Fu. On it!" Chat put an extra dose of power into his leaps. He felt Ladybug shift in his arm, her lips finally leaving his skin.

"They're gone…"

"What!? They stopped chasing us? Already!?" Chat came to a stop, balancing the two of them on his staff, three stories off the ground. He spun his head around to check for himself, but sure enough, there were no akumas in sight. "Well that's a first. They must be intimidated by my Chat like reflexes." Ladybug rolled her eyes, a routine reply that she'd had a lot of practice with over the last three years. "Kind of reminds me of that time…"

"CHAT!" Ladybug's scream came too late though. He felt the burst of air hit his chest, not seeing where it came from. He lost balance with his staff, and he could feel his grip on Ladybug loosen as she shifted around in his grasp, most likely looking for her yo-yo.

The staff jerked out from under them, sending the two heroes careening into the nearest building. Chat hit first, his head slamming into the rough stone. The breath was knocked out of him and in that instant his muscles stopped working. He recovered quickly as he felt the staff fall away from the building, leaving Ladybug and him with no support. The arm not holding her desperately grasped onto the window ledge above him.

Chat sighed in relief as he glanced down to find Ladybug still hanging onto him. She smiled up at him. "Good kitty!" Ladybug released her hold on him to pull out her yo-yo. She tossed her arm up. "Lucky Ch…"

Chat felt it before he heard it. The same rush of air, only this time is slid past him, hitting Ladybug full on. The air pulled her out of his grasp and sent her flying backwards before gravity finally caught up with her. Chat squeezed his eyes shut as he heard the sickening thud of her body hitting the pavement below.

…...

 **So that's the setting up portion of my story (Let me know if this is too short for a chapter – I can make the chapters longer if I need to.)! Next chapter will probably be posted within a day or two since I've already written it. Please leave any constructive criticism for me! I'd love to improve my writing. Thanks for taking the time to read this! Have a Miraculous Day!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi again! Here is Chapter 2! Hope you enjoy!**

 **Thank you** _ **marauderluverz**_ **for your lovely review! I made this chapter twice as long per your recommendation. Love your name by the way! I'm assuming it refers to the four Marauders (Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs), in which case Remus Lupin is my favorite character!**

…...

The momentary shock turned to anger as Chat focused all his attention on his hearing. Sure enough, he heard the telltale swoosh, pinpointing the location of his target. Chat dropped from the ledge, rolling as he hit the ground and grabbing up his baton.

A hiss of pain escaped his chest when he rolled over his arm – dislocated for sure – but he ignored it, charging in the direction that the air had come from. He came face to face with the akumatized racecar driver as he rounded the corner. Chat couldn't hear anything over the sound of the blood rushing through his ears. He watched as the akuma victim boasted, but narrowed his vision in on the controller clutched in the akuma's hand.

Chat darted forward, lashing out at the akuma with his claws. The akuma dodged. Chat grinned as he spun his body with the motion of his missed hit, dropping to the ground and kicking the feet out from under the akuma. The controller went flying into the air as the akuma wailed.

Extending his baton, Chat caught the controller before it could collide into the ground and break. "Not yet, little akuma. You'll have to wait for my lady to purify you."

Chat sidestepped as the akuma victim tried to tackle him in order to get the controller back.

"Give it backkkk! It's minnneeee! I have to win! I move at the speed of light! No one can catch me."

"I don't need to catch you. I've got what I needed." Chat tossed the controller into the air, catching it in his other hand before tucking it into his belt. Normally Chat would have come up with some kind of quirky pun to get a reaction out of his Lady, but his attention was already focused elsewhere. He kicked the akuma away one last time for good measure before rushing to his Lady's side.

There was no time to check on her. It was only a matter of time before the other akuma victims caught up to them, especially with Hawkmoth's vision connecting all of them.

Chat scooped Ladybug up into his arms, pausing briefly to tuck her yo-yo into her belt. She felt smaller somehow as he cradled her to his chest, trying and failing not to notice the amount of blood left on the ground where her head had been resting. "Head wounds bleed more. Everyone knows that, M'Lady. You'll be just fine." Chat leaned down to kiss Ladybug's forehead, his body giving off an involuntary shudder as he felt the lack of warmth that her body should have been producing.

Chat took off with his staff, flying over the buildings of Paris. He hadn't really been sure where he was headed until he landed on a very familiar rooftop garden. He gently laid Ladybug on the deck chair, making his way over to the trapdoor.

Knocking lightly in case her parents were nearby, Chat called out. "Marinette? It's Chat. Chat Noir." He waited, but no response came. "Please Princess. I need you! This is an emergency."

Chat banged his head against the trap door as the tears he hadn't realized he'd been holding back finally streaked their way down his face. He hadn't realized how dependent he had become upon Marinette over the years, both as Adrien and as Chat Noir. She was this constant, cheerful presence, even if half of what she said to Adrien was gibberish.

Marinette was the one who stitched up his shoulder after a particularly nasty run in with an akuma with claws. She had done a clawsitively excellent job, which had him coming back time after time to get patched up. At some point the visits had become less about needing medical assistance and more about just hanging out.

Getting to know her as Chat had also sparked him to hang out with her more as Adrien. He never had figured out why Marinette seemed to have two different personalities when she was around the two halves of himself, but he chopped it up to her being intimidated by Adrien's status as a model and her obsession with his father's fashion line. Still, some of the best times of Adrien's life over the last couple of years had been when he was with Nino, Alya, and Marinette. Doing nothing with them was a thousand times better than forced photo shoots and silent dinners.

The shy girl also gave surprisingly good advice. It had been at her suggestion that he should stop the copious amounts of flirting with Ladybug, telling him that if they were meant to be together he needed to not be the big flirt the city of Paris claimed he was. Her advice had worked wonders, opening the door that led to Ladybug and Chat's strong friendship and unstoppable teamwork.

The thought of Ladybug had Chat gritting his teeth. He lay there on Marinette's balcony for a while before he had the strength to compose himself. Sitting back on the balls of his feet, he yanked at the trap door that he knew led into Marinette's room. He'd only been in there a handful of times as Chat Noir. Normally the two of them would just sit out on her balcony, staring out over the skyline of Paris. That was one of the things that Marinette had in common with his Lady.

He had expected the resistance of the lock, but instead the door came flying open. Chat frowned. "I'll have to talk to Marinette about this when she gets home. It's not safe to just leave her trapdoor open, even if she is on the top floor."

Without another moment's hesitation, Chat once again scooped Ladybug into his arms and dropped down into Marinette's room, careful to hold Ladybug's head as steady as he could.

Marinette's lights were off, the only light filtering in through the trapdoor. Chat gently laid his Lady on Marinette's bed, tossing the pillow away so that the heroine lay flat. The sunlight made a halo around her body, encompassing the broken girl in its warm embrace. With a sigh Chat sat down beside her, burying his head in his hands. "Please….please….please…."

His thoughts were too jumbled. He knew he couldn't risk taking her to a hospital, not while she was transformed. There was no way of knowing how long she'd stay in her Ladybug costume. He also couldn't stop replaying the sound of her hitting the ground over and over again. He was thankful he had looked away so that he didn't have an image to go with the sound. His thoughts also kept drifting to how it was possible for Hawkmoth to akumatize more than one person at a time but that always inevitably led his thoughts back to the girl at his side. Who for all he knew could be….dying.

Chat Noir tensed when he heard yelling on the stairs and footsteps banging their way up. He gripped his baton tightly, extending it partially. Odds were in favor of those footsteps being Marinette, but he couldn't rule out Hawkmoth having tracked them.

Chat braced himself by the trapdoor leading up to Marinette's room. A ghost of a smile graced his face as the memory of when Marinette's parents had offered him treats when he was Adrien flashed into his thoughts. He quickly shook the memory out of his head to focus as the trap door banged open.

"Marinette, you are never going to believe…AGH!" Chat quickly dropped out of his superhero stance when he saw Alya. "Ch-Chat Noir!? What are you doing in Mari's room!?" Her face took on an unexpectedly stern look as she came to stand in front of him, one hand on her hip and the other pointing a finger in his face. "Just what do you think you're doing Mister? Don't you know that there are a dozen akumas running around the streets of Paris? Of course you know. After all I just filmed you and Ladybug at the Eiffel Tower, but still…!"

Chat took a step back, holding his hands up in self-defense. "Alya!" He cut her off mid sentence. "I came here looking for Marinette. Ladybug got hurt and I figured Marinette could stitch her up or something, seeing as how the hospital is kind of out of the question."

Alya finally took a moment to scan the darkened room, her eyes quickly lighting upon the unconscious heroine lying in bed. "OMYGOSH!" Alya rushed over, pulling her phone out as she ran. "Is she okay!? What happened, Chat!? She's bleeding pretty bad. Grab me a towel! We need to put pressure on this wound." Chat silently obeyed, picking up a small pink towel from Marinette's nightstand.

Alya pressed the towel to the Ladybug's forehead. The fact that Ladybug didn't react in the slightest to the pressure left a sick feeling in Chat's chest.

"What makes you think Marinette could help?" Alya sounded confused and a little accusatory.

"Well, uh, she normally stitches me up after a fight. She's very good with a needle and thread, of course you already knew that." Chat fingered the spot on his shoulder.

"How did she do that, what with the suit and all? And for that matter, when did she do that? Marinette never told me that you stop by." Alya was starting to sound a little hurt, making Chat feeling guilty for the potential rift he may have now caused between Marinette and Alya. He really was just an unlucky cat.

"The suit can be manipulated so that parts of it can be taken away to reveal the wounds beneath. Though in the case of my shoulder the suit was already torn. Not many people know this but the suits aren't impervious to direct hits from an akuma." Alya was staring up at Chat with rapt attention. "And about Marinette, please don't blame her for not telling you. Ladybug and I really value our privacy so she was just being a good friend." Chat sighed in relief as Alya slowly smiled.

"That girl really is amazing."

"Yah, she is." Chat barely realized he had spoken, but he caught the evil, all-knowing glint in Alya's gaze letting him know that she had heard him and was filing the information away for later use. Rubbing the back of his neck, Chat asked, "So do you know when Marinette will be home? Or do you know any first aid that could help…" Her name died on his lips but he gestured towards the red-clad heroine.

"We need to get Nino."

Chat's ears perked at the name of his best friend. "Nino?"

"Yah, Nino Lahiffe. He's my boyfriend so we can trust him."

"I know who Nino is. What will he be able to do?"

Alya narrowed her eyes at Chat's first comment, but answered when she glanced back at Ladybug. "Nino may be all about music, but his brother is a doctor. Fourth year residency."

"I didn't know that?" Chat immediately felt like smacking himself. Of course _Chat Noir_ wouldn't know that.

"I didn't expect you to." Alya's piercing gaze was back, but she had her phone in hand, already scrolling through her contacts.

Chat paced around Marinette's room as Alya exchanged hushed whispers with her boyfriend. He gazed at all of the pictures on her wall without really seeing them.

"Adrien Agreste." Adrien gave a little start at the sound of his real name. Alya sighed in a light way that almost sounded like a chuckle. "My girl Marinette is mad about that boy, but don't tell her I told you!" Alya stuck her tongue out at Chat as she turned back to Ladybug.

Chat faced away, back towards the wall that he hadn't realized he'd been gazing at. Sure enough, he saw his own face staring back at him. This explained why Marinette was always so nervous about letting him into her room. A blush crept its way onto his cheeks. "No wonder Marinette is so awkward around me."

"Hmm…what was that?" Chat straightened quickly, scratching the back of his head timidly as he turned to face Alya. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, dabbing at the blood running down Ladybug's face. The sight made him forget all about the pictures behind him.

"Umm…I was just wondering what Nino said?"

"He's calling his brother right now. If all goes well they should be here soon." Alya pushed herself off the bed, dropping the now red towel into the waste bin. "I'll go wait by the front door to let them in." Chat took up Alya's position next to Ladybug, his hand gently grasping hers, as he watched the blogger disappear down the stairs.

…...

 **Next chapter should be up soon! It's about time Ladybug woke up from her nap. I adore Alya and Nino so expect a lot of them in the rest of this story! Other characters will be brought in gradually! I'll accept recommendations on which characters y'all would prefer to see first. My fan favorites are Alix and Ivan, but I don't have any definitive plans yet. Thanks for reading!**


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